German-American Discourse on Politics and Culture

June 18, 2019

History - It's Complicated

I confess that I am addicted to coffee. And my favorite coffee is Major Dickason's Dark Roast Blend roasted and sold by California-based Peet's Coffee. I drink a cup of Peet's coffee each morning when I wake up, and then several more throughout the day. I did know that Peet's had been acquired by JAB Holdings, controlled by the Reimann Family in Germany, but only recently did I become aware of the Nazi roots of the Reimann mega-empire of consumer brands. I personally wasn't surprised, having studied the history of other German enterprises - such as Deutsche Bank and BMW (Quandt Family). But other coffee lovers have been shaken by the revelation.

"I had the perfect cup while staying with friends, and it turned out to be Peet’s Major Dickason’s Blend, a dark-roast “incomparable world blend” I can buy at the grocery store pre-ground. I brew it in the electric coffeemaker my visiting parents gave us when they could no longer stand waiting for the Chemex to mete out their morning caffeine. Welcome to adult life, when strong coffee needs to happen as quickly and painlessly as possible.

I was perfectly happy with this arrangement until in March the German tabloid Bild Am Sonntag reported that the family behind Peet’s parent company JAB Holding had been staunch supporters of the Third Reich, and in fact had built their fortune via Nazi Germany’s large-scale forced-labor system. Honcho Albert Reimann Sr. was a card-carrying Nazi who made donations to the SS, Hitler’s paramilitary force, in the early 1930s. In 1937, according to the New York Times, Albert Reimann Jr. wrote a letter to Heinrich Himmler: “We are a purely Aryan family business that is over 100 years old,” it read. “The owners are unconditional followers of the race theory.”"

Devra First decided - reluctantly - that she could no longer in good conscience drink Peet's Coffee and found a locally roasted coffee as a substitute.

But history is never entirely black and white, and the history of the Reimann family is no different. The New York Times published a fascinating article about the family and its secret that the mother of the three surviving Reimann children - who still control JAB Holdings - was Jewish (or half-Jewish): Emilie Landecker was one of the forced laborers who toiled for Benckiser during the Third Reich:

"Emilie Landecker was 19 when she went to work for Benckiser, a German company that made industrial cleaning products and also took pride in cleansing its staff of non-Aryan elements.

It was 1941. Ms. Landecker was half Jewish and terrified of deportation. Her new boss, Albert Reimann Jr., was an early disciple of Adolf Hitler and described himself as an “unconditional follower” of Nazi race theory.

Somehow, inexplicably, they fell in love.

The story of Ms. Landecker, whose Jewish father was murdered by the Nazis, and Mr. Reimann, whose fervent Nazism and abuse of forced laborers did not stop his family from attaining colossal wealth after the war, is a tale of death and devotion and human contradictions. It is also a tale of modern-day corporate atonement."

The Reimann Family and Peter Harf, CEO of JAB Holdings, have established a foundation - Die Alfred Landecker Stiftung - named after Emilie Landecker's father who perished in the Sobibór death camp, to fund Holocaust research and support democratic institutions. The new generation of ownership and leadership cannot be blamed for the crimes of the grandfather and are doing perhaps more than other German companies to atone for sins of the past. So I will continue to wake up to a cup of Peet's Coffee.

Comments

Great post, its in order to know the origin of what we consume. Dont dwell about the history and crimes committed by the grandfather of the leaders of Peet's Coffee company so long as they produce quality coffee and satisfy your needs as a customer.